The Five-Line Success Scorecard (Money Goes Last)

Jason built a business that crossed seven figures in revenue. He was proud of it, and he should be. He also noticed his health slipping, felt tired all the time, and had nothing left by the end of most days.

Jose has his own version. He went back to school around 30, told himself a six-figure salary would feel like arriving, hit it, and felt… okay. So he raised the bar. He has since tripled his salary, and the bar keeps moving. His conclusion on the episode was simple: if you gained in one area and lost in another, you didn’t grow. You traded.

That idea is the whole reason for this post. Most of us only keep score on one line, usually money, because it’s the one with a number attached. So here’s a scorecard with five lines. Fill it in honestly. It takes ten minutes and it will probably sting a little.

The five lines

Score each line from 1 to 5. A 1 means “I’m neglecting this and I know it.” A 5 means “I’d be fine if the people closest to me graded this one.” Use the questions under each line to keep yourself honest. Most of them came straight out of things Jason and Jose asked each other.

1. Health. Am I taking care of the body I’m asking to carry all of this? How’s my sleep, my energy, my weight trend? How many times this week did I skip the thing for my health because something “more important” came up?
2. Presence. When I’m home, am I actually there? Or would the people at the table say I was thinking about an email? Jason put it plainly: you can be in the room and still be unkind. Presence means being there and being kind, helpful and understanding.
3. Character. Who do I want to be remembered as? Not “he built a lot of podcast tables,” as Jason joked, but how I treated people. Have I cut corners for money? Have I bent my own boundaries just to avoid conflict or to be liked?
4. Relationships. Are the important ones healthy? Is my ability to work through conflict getting better or worse? Do the people closest to me still feel like friends, or like roommates I share a calendar with?
5. Money. Does it cover what actually matters? And the harder question: what is it costing me to earn it? Money goes last on this list on purpose. It’s usually the one line we already watch closely.

If you have money but you’re a bad partner or a bad parent or a bad friend, are you successful or are you just good at business?

Run the trade check

Now look back over the last year or two. For every line that went up, ask what went down to pay for it.

This is where Jose’s rule earns its keep. Jason’s revenue line went up while his health line and his presence line went down. On paper, success. On the scorecard, a swap. Jose was honest about the reverse: he’s healthier now than he’s been in years, but he doesn’t count it as a win because it came after another part of his life fell apart. To him, growth would have been getting healthier without giving something else up.

You don’t need a perfect 25. Jose said it himself: you’re always going to be failing at some part of your life, because nobody can do it all. The point is to know which line you’re spending, and to decide on purpose instead of finding out years later.

Put your own oxygen mask on first

There’s a line missing from most men’s scorecards, and it’s the reason the health and presence scores tend to sink together: you.

Jose landed on this one recently. He realized he’d always found more joy in giving to the people he loves than in doing anything for himself. Then the airplane safety speech popped into his head. If the cabin loses pressure, put your own mask on first, even before helping a child. He realized he had never once done that. Nobody had ever told him that was part of the job.

His example was small and very relatable. There were times he skipped the gym because it felt selfish to take the time. Looking back, he thinks going would have made him better for everyone around him.

You can’t be the rock for your family if you can’t hold your own.

So when you score Health and Presence, ask one more question: am I skipping my own mask and calling it sacrifice? If the answer is yes, that’s not noble. It’s a slow leak that everyone around you eventually feels.

One move per line, starting with the lowest

A scorecard you fill in once and forget is just a guilt trip. Here’s how to use it:

1. Circle your lowest line. Not the one that’s easiest to fix. The lowest one.
2. Write one action you can do this week. Small and specific. “Phone in the other room after dinner on weeknights” beats “be more present.”
3. Write what it might cost. Every move takes time from somewhere. Name it now so it doesn’t sneak up on you. If the cost lands on another low line, pick a different move.
4. Tell one person. Jason and Jose keep each other honest. Find your version of that.
5. Rescore in 90 days. You’re looking for the lowest line to move up without anything else dropping. That’s the version of success Jose was describing.

Am I the person that I want to be for those who are closest to me and that I love the most?

That question from Jason is a good one to write across the top of the page. Revenue is easy to measure. This is the one that counts.

Your turn

Which line on your scorecard is lowest right now, and what did you trade for it? Tell us in the YouTube comments on the episode. We’ll go first: we both know ours.